e-pl2 red spot problem

Would an IR filter be responsible for loss of sharpness too, or wouldn't a thicker AA filter be of both?

These test images were published dSLRmagazine:

I think too that one must be careful to separate lamp flares, from the multiple red spots grid, that can totally spoil an image. But to me the matter of sharpness is important too. And if it's a hardware problem, no firmware fix will help.